Google maps development History

Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005, and was located at http://maps.google.com/. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla web browsers, but support for Opera and Safari was added on February 25, 2005. Currently (December 15, 2008) Internet Explorer 7.0+, Firefox 2.0.0.11+, Safari 3+, Mozilla 1.8+, Chrome 0.2 and Opera 8.02+ are supported. It was in beta for six months before becoming part of Google Local on October 6, 2005.

This section may contain an inappropriate mixture of prose and timeline. Please help convert this timeline into prose or, if necessary, a list. (April 2008) In April 2005, an alternate view was activated to show Satellite images of the area displayed. In April 2005, Google created Google Ride Finder using Google Maps. In June 2005, Google released the Extensibility and customisation. In July 2005, Google began Google Maps and Google Local services for Japan, including road maps. On July 22, 2005, Google released "Hybrid View". Together with this change, the satellite image data was converted from plate carrée to Mercator projection, which makes for a less distorted image in the temperate climes latitudes. In July 2005, in honor of the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, Google Moon was launched. In September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Maps quickly updated its satellite imagery of New Orleans to allow users to view the extent of the flooding in various parts of that city. (Oddly, in March 2007, imagery showing hurricane damage was replaced with images from before the storm; this replacement was not made on Google Earth, which still uses post-Katrina imagery. As of January 2, 2006 (2006 -01-02)[update], Google Maps features road maps for the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and certain cities in the Republic of Ireland. Coverage of the area around Turin was added in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics. On January 23, 2006, Google Maps was updated to use the same satellite image database as Google Earth. Google Maps promotional livery on New York City subway cars, Nov. 2008 On March 12, 2006, Google Mars was launched, which features a draggable map and satellite imagery of the planet Mars. In April 2006, Google Local was merged into the main Google Maps site. On April 3, 2006, version 2 of the Maps API was released. On June 11, 2006, Google added geocoding capabilities to the API, satisfying what it called the most requested feature for this service. On June 14, 2006, Google Maps for Enterprise was officially launched. As a commercial service, it features intranet and advertisement-free implementations. Beginning in February 2007, buildings and subway stops are displayed in Google Maps "map view" for parts of New York City, Washington, D.C., London, San Francisco, and some other cities. On February 28, 2007, Google Traffic info was officially launched to automatically include real-time traffic flow conditions to the maps of 30 major cities of the United States. On May 29, 2007, Google driving directions support was added to the Google Maps API. On May 30, 2007, Street View was added. It gives ground level 360 degree view of streets in some major cities in United States. On June 28, 2007, draggable driving directions were introduced. On July 31, 2007, support for the hCard microformat was announced; Google Maps search results will now output the hCard microformat; unfortunately, the implementation is broken. On November 27, 2007, "Terrain" view showing basic topographic features was added. The button for "Hybrid" view was removed, and replaced with a "Show labels" checkbox under the "Satellite" button to switch between "Hybrid" and "Satellite" views. In April 2008, a button to view recent Saved Locations was added to the right of the search field (must be signed in). In May 2008, a "More" button was added alongside the "Map", "Satellite", and "Terrain" buttons, permitting access to geographically-related photos on Panoramio and articles on Wikipedia. On May 15, 2008, ported to Flash and ActionScript 3 as a foundation for richer internet applications. On August 29, 2008, Google has signed a deal under which GeoEye will supply the search giant with imagery from a satellite. On October 7, 2008, GeoEye-1 takes its first image which is a Bird's-eye view of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania

• On April 14, 2009, the "More" button was extended within a new menu point 'Webcams', permitting access to geographically-related webcams on Webcams.travel.